Since I bought Misty a few weeks ago, I had plans to have her leading and picking up her feet by now... Was I ever wrong! Mother Nature always has that habit of breaking every one of my plans!
Since I've had Misty, I spent a lot of time with her in the pasture, she is now a friendly little puppy that follows me everywhere... and I must admit that it's annoying somethimes!
I've worked once with her, changed her halter from a rope to a nylon until she can be caught and haltered easily. Put a rope once on her and all hell broke loose until she finaly understood some basic prehistoric stuff and I let her go, since she responded good.
Since then it's been raining constantly during my weekends, we've had snow and torturing winds last weekend that froze you in your tracks! No intention of going outside, although I had to go for the routine stuff, but I had no interest in playing with horses... my only interest was in a warm bath (Hot!) and a big fluffy blanket. It was SO cold! I wonder how we keep spending winter without freezing to death!?!
Since we've had temps over the 20s Celsius lately, I had put all of my big bulky clothes away, so guess what, I was absolutely frozen after spending 10 minutes out in that wind!
So we are starting all over in our training plan. This weekend is supposed to be nice, so I plan on spending at least half a day training and I absolutely want to go for a ride, I haven't ridden until the beginning of the month and I am undergoing a sort of riding withdrawal... therefore, if I don't ride this weekend, I will throw a fit and probably cry a little.
I have finally found it in me to ride Pearl again. I was her first ride ever and she had to cope with me and I had to cope with her. It was one of the worst rides on a horse I have ever had. She was nervous, mini-rearing everytime we stopped and was hard to steer. At least I found out what she was all about. I sat on Pearl once after that (about 6 months after our first ride) and she was good. Why did I dismount??? Because my mom, who had been taking lessons with Dandy was supposed to come for a little trail ride with me. So I gave her Dandy because she is very calm and takes care of my mom and I was going to take Pearl. So I helped my mom up on Dandy and climbed aboard Pearl, which stood stock still for once! My mom was getting nervous, despite Dandy being as cool as can be. She decided that she wanted off, so I dismounted Pearl and attended her and Dandy.
Now that I know how Pearl is (a big faker!) I can totally handle her mood swings. Pearl likes to intimidate her rider and she is very good at it. Now, she has learned not to rear, but she fakes it by sitting her butt down and extending her front legs as much as possible. For the rider, this feels exactly like a rear, but she has all four legs (sometimes 3) on the ground! I know... she's good! This is probably a thought behaviour. This is pretty much all she does, except she is hard to steer a bit and can't stand still when she doesn't feel like it. I got all of it mapped out, I know she'll want to act out, but she certainly isn't out of control. I plan on riding her briefly this weekend, if the stars align! I'll let you know how that goes.
Peg is doing terrific, she still has her shoes and they are working GREAT! Her gait has improved dramatically, which as permitted the shoes to stay on, no adjustments needed in over 3 weeks! Her hooves grow very slowly so the shoes don't need to be reset yet, but I always keep a close eye on them and check them every time I go out to see the horses. her foot is starting to reshape nicely and she is not lame at all! I am tickled! Try Easywalker horseshoes if you want a good performance shoe that is not made of steel, absorbs most of the shock and is safe on pavement, ciment, grass, etc. It is simply great!
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